I really love Ritter Sport. They continue to really surprise and delight me with the new flavors, and the classic flavors, that their chocolate bars have. I found this bar by accident and immediately recognized the label as something now. I saw the cherries and the ice cream on the label of this one, and it told me all I needed to know for that moment. I scooped it up and bought it for this review. Ritter Sport has gotten better with getting some of the amazing flavors that they have in Germany over here to the US. I for one, am most grateful for this. Especially when the chocolate bars are as good as that waffle bar they had last year.

The package is super pretty and appealing. It has a beautiful white background with the image of a cherry ice cream come and red cherries. It’s really red heavy and catches my eye immediately. I have to admit I did not know what Amarena Cherry was so I had to look it up on Wikipedia. Long explanation short, it’s a special type of Italian cherry, which makes the image of the gelato on the front very fitting.

Opening the package and taking a sniff, the chocolate smells amazing. You immediately get the sweetness of the chocolate, but it’s all overpowered by the intense scent of a ripe, fresh, juicy black cherry. Thankfully this smells like real cherries, or should i say, real cherry syrup. It’s not at all fake or reminiscent of medicine. Breaking off my first piece, the milk chocolate has a beautiful creamy color and the center filling is a very pale pink with bright red spots on it. It’s very inviting.

The flavor is sweet, and you taste the creamy milk chocolate right away. Then, almost immediately, you taste the cherry. I am reminded of a rich cherry ice cream. It really picks up on the darker cherry flavor, as it’s much more intense and juicy. The red flecks in the filling have a slight crispy texture to them which I wasn’t expecting. The milk chocolate and the cherry flavors combined is a beautiful symphony of flavor in your mouth. It’s a great combination and isn’t as overpoweringly sweet as I anticipated. I shared this bar with my new husband, and he just adored it. He’s a big fan of cherry flavors and he told me that this is one of the best he’s ever had.

I really wish that I could find more of this bar. Sadly these were the last two when I initially found them in the store. My husband gobbled up the first one so quickly and now we’re both trying to save the last. The flavors in this are just so authentic and tasty. If you see it you really must give it a try. We both really fell in love with the flavor and we hope to find it again soon!

Since moving out to the west coast, there’s a lot of candy changes I’ve noticed when I go to the local stores. It’s amazing to me how regional candy can be, and some treats that I was so used to seeing are no longer around. Then there’s the candies that I never saw and now see routinely on my grocery store trips. Brown Haley’s Roca candies are one of these. I used to never be able to find them, and now that I’m on the west coast I see them everywhere. I’ve tried them unofficially, but I haven’t sat down to do a real officially review of them just yet. I hope to fix that some today with this seasonal variety of Roca that is peppermint flavored.

I really like the Roca’s package design. The red and white stripes and the easily recognizable Roca logo make it so beautiful and festive. The top opens up to reveal a sealed foil packet that holds the Roca pieces safely and keeps them fresh. Simple and easy design.

The candies come individuality wrapped in heavy foil wrappers that are decorated with white and red stripes. You can smell the chocolate through the wrappers. There’s only the the slightest hint of peppermint, which I was surprised by as I was expecting more of a scent. Once unwrapped, the Roca has a nice, deep dark chocolate coating. There’s a drizzle of white chocolate on top which gives it a nice seasonal feeling.

The first bite is incredibly crispy and just easily falls apart into nice soft pieces. The peppermint flavor is mixed into the dark chocolate, and it gives it a very rich flavor from the peppermint oil. The toffee’s buttery flavor shines through once the dark chocolate coating melts away. It’s beautifully sweet and very buttery with light toasted notes. The blending of the dark chocolate, the toffee and the peppermint flavoring is a very flavorful one. It works well with keeping what we all recognize to be a Roca candy, but at the same time it’s something seasonal.

I was super pleased with the texture of the toffee in these candies. They were hard, but shattered beautifully into pieces when bitten into the right way. The toffee pieces weren’t sharp and instead felt a little soft as you began to chew them. It’s completely delightful to much on these. The flavor is great too, with the peppermint being a great addition to the Roca’s normal flavors. These are a nice introduction into the Roca line if you’ve never had them. Also if you’re just crazy about Peppermint but don’t want something too strong, these are a good way to go. Rating: Will Eat Again

I must confess, I have a big soft spot for Chuao Chocolatier. Back ages ago when I was a newbie candy blogger, Chuao was one of the first “artisan” chocolates I ever tasted. I was immediately in love, and all the people at Chuao have always been so friendly to talk to. Ever since then I have been following the chocolates they make very closely. My frequent readers probably notice that I eat a lot of my chocolate candy with a cup of coffee. Chuao makes chocolates specifically designed to be enjoyed with a cup of coffee. They make the flavors, shape and thickness of the chocolate bar perfect for eating with a cup of coffee. These chocolate bars are called Chocopods. Over the years they’ve been adding and experimenting with all sorts of flavors and varieties. So today I am reviewing two of their newest flavors.

Chuao recently just went through a re-design of all their packaging. They used to be solid colors with just nice lettering on them. The new updated look is going much more in style of the Vosges Haute Chocolate bars have had. Super enticing food photography with a clinical white background and bold lettering. It’s a very “in your face” type of style, as you can see right away the flavors and ingredients used in that chocolate bar. I do not work in marketing so I can’t say if this style is more successful than others, but I do know it’s incredibly eye-catching.

Let’s see how they taste:

Maple Bacon: “Crisp bacon, delicate maple sweetness and a bonfire smoked sea salt, bathed in milk chocolate”. The chocolate is a pretty middle brown wit ha gorgeous glossy sheen. The aroma is dominated by a strong smoky scent of the bacon. It’s a sweet smoky smell, but you do get that aroma of “meat”. It’s really interesting. The flavor starts out chocolatey, then the salt of the bacon starts to come though. The saltiness really enhances the flavor of the milk chocolate, and it comes across as even sweeter and creamier. Once that creaminess subsides you can taste the smokiness of the bacon. The flavor isn’t of bacon per se, but you do get that “smoked meat” essence to it. It’s a lot tastier than I expected and not at all as extreme as I feared. It’s a really nice blending of the two flavors and it comes across as a unique, but still, tasty milk chocolate bar.

Honeycomb: “luscious amber honey, caramelized into crisp bits and enrobed in dark chocolate”. I unwrap the candy to find a beautiful dark chocolate in the shape of a cacao pod. The chocolate smells richly of coffee, cherries and wood. The first bite is incredibly flavorful. You can immediately taste the honey and the sweet honeycomb. The pieces of the honeycomb are really crispy and sweat and is a nice compliment to the smooth chocolate. The chocolate has some subtle fruity flavors of red berries and cream. Just astounding how delicious this bar it. The flavor of the honeycomb and the sweet chocolate really combine into something very different and very tasty.

I really loved these two Chocopods. I think if I had to choose a favorite of the two, it would be the honeycomb. But it’s hard to pick favorites, as each are so unique and appeal to a different flavor profile. I’m sure that on a different day when I was craving saltier and more smokey foods I’d choose the Maple Bacon. Still, the point stands that these are both super yummy, and if you happen to see them, I highly suggest giving them a try.

I really love how creative Marshmallow Peeps have been getting in the past couple of years. You can tell they’ve really been trying hard to replicate how people have been enjoying their chocolate dipped and chocolate covered peeps. So I was especially excited to see that they decided to go and make peppermint flavored Peeps and dip their cute behinds in chocolate for the holidays this year. I’ve really loved this style of Peep back during Easter time when they’ve had the coco Peeps with the chocolate coating, so I’m especially interested to see how the peppermint flavor goes over. It’s an incredibly festive idea and I bought these immediately once I saw them in the store.

Well, first things first! I looked at the ingredients list and the chocolate used here is indeed real chocolate. Phew! The Peeps are just adorable. They come three to a package and each one nestled in their own little plastic sections. The Peeps are a beautiful white with red peppermint flakes on them. The are super cute and super festive. The plastic tray they fit in protects them really well too, so none of my Peeps got squished.

The Peeps smell really intensely of peppermint. You can detect a little bit of the chocolate in the scent, but it’s mainly the peppermint.

The texture of the Peep is really soft and pillowy, like a Peep should be. The chocolate on the bottom is tasty and melts easily on the tongue. The peppermint flavor is the star here, but it’s still not a strong as I was expecting. The Peeps have a nice subtle vanilla flavor accented by the peppermint. The dark chocolate on the bottom has a really nice flavor that compliments the peppermint marshmallow perfectly. Considering I’ve had other Peeps of this variety, I think the peppermint marshmallow works a lot better than the standard marshmallow. It gives the candy a new depth to it. It’s not longer “just” a marshmallow peep.

I highly recommend these to anyone who loves Peeps and also adore the whole peppermint trend that shows up this time of year. I can also see these used for a lot of really neat food decorations; on top of mugs of hot cocoa or to decorate cupcakes. These Peeps taste great and look super cute and festive at the same time!